NM Women Lagging In ‘Economic Clout’

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WWR Article Summary (tl;dr)According to “Pitch Book”, a financial data and software company, only 11 percent of all venture capital in New Mexico goes to female-owned businesses.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

April Molina, who calls herself “an entrepreneur by nature,” has started three companies.

She sold her last one, a clothing line, to launch her latest venture, Kids Luv Yoga, which offers techniques she and her husband developed for her son, who has autism.

The business has 30 certified instructors serving three dozen Albuquerque-area public and private schools and offers training to schoolteachers.

Still, Molina says, she’s often dismissed as a “hobbyist.”

“I believe it’s hard as a woman to be seen as a CEO, as a confident leader,” Molina says. “People say, ‘It’s a cute idea, it’s just mom doing a thing.'”

Molina is among a growing number of female entrepreneurs in New Mexico, although the growth is much more muted than in other states.

New Mexico is ranked No. 45 in women’s “economic clout,” which includes growth in the number of female-owned firms, as well as growth in the number of people they employ and revenue generated, according to the annual “State of Women-Owned Businesses Report,” released last month with projections for 2018.

The report, commissioned by American Express, shows a 21 percent rise in female-owned businesses in New Mexico since 2007, compared to 58 percent nationwide.

As with the rest of the country, much of New Mexico’s growth has been fueled by Hispanic women, who had a 51 percent increase, and Native Americans, at 27 percent growth. (No state figures were available for African-American women.)

Despite the lag in growth, female-owned businesses still account for 39 percent of all companies in New Mexico — similar to the nation’s 40 percent. But their revenues are limited to just over 5 percent of the state’s total business revenues, according to the Small Business Administration’s New Mexico office.